HAUNTING SOUND FROM THE COLD WAR ERA
We don’t know much about this particular instrument’s history – a friend of Soniccouture, Tomjuno, found it in one of Berlins’s many flea markets. It was sold to him by a vendor who specialises in DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) era collectibles. It is a child’s toy piano, made of plastic.
It has a wonderfully clanky, bell like tone with very loud, distinctive key-off sounds as the keys disengage.
The instrument was recorded with a spaced stereo pair of vintage Neumann mics, in Normal Bias Studios, Berlin in August 2011.
